Concentration Camps:
Gross-Rosen

The Gross-Rosenconcentration camp was originally
established in 1940 as a subcamp of the Sachsenhausenconcentration camp. The camp
was named for the nearby village of Gross-Rosen. Now called Rogoznica,
the village is approximately 40 miles southwest of Wroclaw in present-day
western Poland. In 1941, Gross-Rosen
was designated an autonomous concentration camp.

Stone quarry where prisoners were subjected to forced labor

Gross-Rosen Subcamps

At first, the prisoners were employed primarily as
forced laborers in the construction of the camp and in the nearby SS-owned
granite quarry. The increasing emphasis on the use of concentration
camp prisoners in armaments production led to the expansion of the Gross-Rosen
camp, which became the center of an industrial complex and the administrative
hub of a vast network of at least 97 subcamps. As of January 1, 1945,
the Gross-Rosen complex held 76,728 prisoners. Nearly 26,000 of these
were women, most of them Jews. This was one of the largest groupings
of female prisoners in the entire concentration camp system.

Several hundred Jews had been prisoners in Gross-Rosen
between 1940 and 1943. In late 1943, a mass influx of Jews swelled the
prisoner population. Starting in October of that year, and continuing
until January of 1945, as many as 60,000 Jewish prisoners were deported
to Gross-Rosen. Most of them came from Poland and, after March 1944,
from Hungary. Some came from
western and southern Europe. A large number of these Jews came from
28 forced-labor camps which had been part of the Organisation Schmelt
system in Silesia.

Other incoming prisoners were distributed within the
Gross-Rosen subcamp system in order to be put to forced labor in support
of the war effort. Many of the prisoners worked for companies such as
Krupp, I.G. Farben, and Daimler Benz. Jewish prisoners did not begin
arriving in the main camp until the fall of 1944, with the evacuation
of Auschwitz.

SS Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Roedl, commandant of Gross-Rosen from May 1, 1941, and September 15, 1942.

One of the better-known subcamps of Gross-Rosen is
Bruennlitz, a subcamp established in an empty former textile factory
through the efforts of Oskar
Schindler. After the closure of that camp at Krakow-Plaszow,
1,100 Jewish prisoners who had worked there for Schindler were transported
for labor at the new camp at Bruennlitz, where they were able to survive
the war.

The Liberation Of Gross-Rosen

As Soviet forces approached in January 1945, the Germans
began to evacuate the Gross-Rosen complex. The subcamps on the eastern
bank of the Oder River were dissolved. In early February 1945, the main
camp was evacuated, followed by additional subcamps. About 40,000 prisoners,
half of whom were Jews, were forced on death marches, marching west
on foot under brutal conditions. Some of the survivors were then transported
by rail to Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Dachau, Flossenbuerg, Mauthausen, Dora-Mittelbau, and Neuengamme — camps in the German Reich. Many prisoners died during the evacuations
due to the lack of food and water. SS guards killed prisoners who became
too weak to continue. Soviet forces liberated the main Gross-Rosen camp
on February 13, 1945.

It is estimated that of the 120,000 prisoners who passed
through the Gross-Rosen camp system, 40,000 died either in Gross-Rosen
or during the evacuation of the camp.

Open Daily, Free Entrance
October 16-March 15: 8am-5pm
March 16-April 30: 8am-6pm
May 1-August 31: 8am-8pm
September 1-October 15: 8am-6pm
*Children under the age of 13 are not allowed to visit*
January 1, December 25, Easter Sunday: CLOSED